Once Upon A December
by Yue-to-Sakura
Summary: A song once upon a December... Memories that wasn't exactly hers.. A forgotten past.. Orihime is torn on who she truly was.. When two strangers offer her a path to her past... Will she find her answers? But what happens when these two strangers experience the same things as her- images of a past that wasn't theirs?


**Disclaimer: **I do not own Bleach or any of its characters. They belong to Tite Kubo. I also do not own the song "Once Upon A December." It's from Disney.

Now off to the story we go!

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**Once Upon A December**

**Chapter 1: The Real One**

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"This place.. It's.. It's like a memory from a dream…." breathed out a 16-year old girl with blazing orange hair adorned with a pair of blue six-petal flower hairpins as she stepped in for the first time in the infamous scarred, abandoned, what once-was-white castle known as Las Noches.

Amongst the soot and monochrome of the place, she was the only blotch of color as her bright hair swayed back and forth and her green peddler's clothes swished with every step she took while scanning the place with inquisitive violet-tinged storm grey eyes. She headed towards a surprisingly intact vase in front of an ironically broken mirror and traced its bear and swan designs with both of her hands and her eyes. Her gaze moved up to the mirror, her reflection staring back at her, and a song from her heart found words out of her pink lips,

"Dancing bears

Painted wings…"

The auburn-haired lady, in a nostalgic trance, then half-waltzed and half-ran away from the mirror and the vase to enter an open door towards an unknown room still singing,

"….Things I almost remember

And a song someone sings…"

She got into what presumed to be a ballroom, descended down the flight stairs slowly as her mind recalled memories from a dream and melodious words flowed out of her lips,

"…Once upon a December.."

She stopped and faced a huge, framed painting blurred by the years but undamaged still. Her arms moved on their own and wrapped themselves about her chest as her body swayed to the tune of her heart while she continued her song,

"….Someone holds me safe and warm…."

Her feet pivoted and slowly stepped away with her back facing the painting. Her arms removed her green coat from her body, revealing the yellow clothing underneath. Now looking at the empty dance floor a flight of steps below her and her body still swaying with her own music, she sang,

"…Horses prance through a silver storm

Figures dancing gracefully…"

Once again, unconsciously, she hugged herself and twirled as she intoned,

"…Across my memory….."

Her arms stretched up. Her eyes closed, and when she opened them again, it was as if she was reliving a memory that felt like hers but wasn't exactly hers. She could imagine all the people, with those strange broken masks on various parts of their face, who would've been in the ballroom. She could almost hear the dance music playing in the background. And as if she was really in the timeline of her imagination, she curtsied to the people only her over -imaginative mind's eye can conjure while she slowly descended down the last steps of the grand staircase.

Her feet meeting the floor, she started to hum and dance with the music only she could hear. After a while, as if reaching a certain point of a da capo, melodious words once again flowed out of her lips as she twirled,

"…Someone holds me safe and warm

Horses prance through a silver storm

Figures dancing gracefully

Across my memory…."

By this time, females in colourful, aristocratic gowns from her imagination approached her, curtsied, and bestowed upon her a glittering necklace of diamonds. After which, she pirouetted and delving far too much in reminiscence, she thought of herself wearing a shining pure white gown with black trims and a glistening, crystal tiara sitting on her head while she danced with a male in an equally white attire with black designs and a half-helmet with a horn covering the left side of his head.

"…..Far away, long ago

Glowing dim as an ember….."

As those words left her lips, she was studying the dance partner only she could see. She couldn't make out much of his appearance. His face was a blur, but somehow, she could make out that he was pale, that there were teal tear streak marks on his face and that some strands of his raven black hair fell between his eyes and over his nose. And somehow, she just knew that this was no ordinary man she was dancing with, that he was different from all others, as she continued to sing,

"…..Things my heart used to know

Things it yearns to remember..

And a song someone sings…"

The music was ending and so was the dance. The pale man let go of her hand slowly and as if in finale and farewell, kissed her gently on the lips the moment their fingers intertwined. Time seemed to still for what seemed like years.. and when the pressure on her lips was gone, so was the hand holding hers. At the same time, her song came to a close as her voice sang in a ritardando and a crescendo,

"….Once upon a December…."

And the last she saw was the fading image of the pale man with his right hand outstretched towards her own hand that was reaching out for him before everything in her mind's eye crumbled away like ashes blowing with the wind…. Reality came crashing in.. She fell to her knees and rolling down her face were tears that glistened in the moonlight streaming from the cracked windows of Las Noches.

"Who am I?" asked the lady to herself.

Indeed, who was she? Her name was Orihime… But her last name was as clear to her as muddy water. Memories of her past evaded her. All she could remember about herself was that she appeared in front of the Karakura Orphanage when she was 6 with no remainders of her past except her hairpins and the torn commoner's dress she was wearing two days after the Inoue Dukedom Family was attacked by a band of humans by the borders of Hueco Mundo. However, there were also images of a distant long ago that seemed to not be hers but still belonged to her, or perhaps an another Orihime, that kept flashing in her mind along with the feelings associated with them. Yet, none of them were as vivid as the one a while ago. More importantly, not one of them left such a harrowing, empty feeling inside of her chest that made her question her identity and long for days that only existed in a dream.

Not only that. There, inside a castle nobody dared to enter due to who or what its previous occupants were a hundred years ago, she oddly felt at home even if it was the first she gathered the courage to really come inside of it …. After all, even if Las Noches had been purged a hundred years ago of its Hollows, beings that ate human souls, the heaviness of their reiatsu still persisted in the atmosphere all around it. It wasn't much of a wonder of course. The Hollows in Las Noches were high-level ones. They were Arrancars, the most evolved Hollows.

The same was partly true for the rest of Hueco Mundo, the city of Hollows. Even if the Shinigami have killed all Hollows in the Winter War a hundred years ago and Hueco Mundo has been inhabited by humans and Shinigamis alike for years since, the feel of the Hollows were still in the air.. Like nightmares of a child hiding in the shadows during daytime and waiting for the sun to set as a signal to finally strike…

Unbeknownst to Orihime while she kept searching her heart, her mind, her soul for her identity and her past, two pairs of eyes belonging to males had and still were watching her ever since she stepped foot in Las Noches… One was a pair of emerald orbs with slit pupils and the other was eyes of cobalt blue.

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"Oi, is she finally the real one?" questioned the owner of the sapphire eyes, who had matching bright blue hair, in a voice barely above a whisper.

"Yes," replied the owner of the green eyes, who had inky black tresses, in a monotone yet distant but sure voice.

"How the hell are you so sure about that?" asked the blue-eyed man.

"She matches the description Aizen-sama gave about the long lost sister Duke Sora Inoue is searching for ever since he woke up from his coma," the other mechanically replied after a short pause.

"To hell with that! The description only consisted of 'orange hair', 'purplish storm grey eyes', 'blue flower hairpins'! Besides, it's been ten years since that comatose duke had seen his little sister! Who knows how much she's changed!" the blue-haired man seethed, facing his companion.

A silence followed. Oh yes, the black-haired man was a bit confused at himself as to why he felt so sure that she was the one they were looking for. He just…. knew…. Most especially when the woman started singing out of the blue and when he realized he could somewhat identify with the song, which resonated with the stirring within him… Memories that was his and at the same time not his…

At the lack of an answer from his companion, the sapphire-eyed man grunted and said, "Whatever. Since your Aizen's most trusted, perhaps he told you some information he didn't tell the rest of us."

But the blue-haired man knew that wasn't the case. How so? Simply because he experienced the same thing the green-eyed man did…. The sense of a nostalgic familiarity from images flashing in his mind that wasn't in his past….

"So, what the hell did Aizen tell you that we would do once we found the girl?" asked the blue-eyed man.

"We deliver her to Duke Sora Inoue, get the reward and bring it back full to him so that he can use it for the plans," answered the viridian-eyed man.

"So we kidnap her? Don't give me that shit Ulquiorra" growled the sapphire-eyed man to his raven-haired companion.

"Just do as I say Grimmjow," responded 'Ulquiorra.'

'Grimmjow' scowled deeply and stated, "Whatever. You're the one with the brains."

"Good. Now let's go" Ulquiorra declared, moved away from their hiding place, and started heading out of Las Noches.

"But the gi—" Grimmjow was about to retort when he noticed that she wasn't there anymore.

"Crap," he cursed under his breath and rapidly followed the black-haired man, "Damn you Ulquiorra! Why the hell didn't you tell me she left? Don't tell me you started leaving first because you were scared a Hollow might appear and eat that shitty soul of yours?"

"It seemed I have overestimated you Grimmjow. It seems you can't even focus your attention to the center of our mission enough to know that she wasn't there anymore," Ulquiorra mocked in his emotionless voice, "Don't tell me you can't handle yourself once a Hollow appears in front of you too?"

"Go to hell," retorted Grimmjow, not having anything else to say.

A silence then ensued between the two as they trailed their target from an inconspicuous distance...

Without the three of them knowing it, the play of fate has begun… one that revolves around once upon a December.

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_A/N: Hello folks! Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed it! As you may have deduced, this story is based from Anastasia, although there will be some twists and turns. When will I update? I don't know... XD When will I update my other stories? I really don't know. When I feel like it... XP I really need a push so that I'll get my mind to write XP_

_Anywho, please do tell me what you think of the story :))_

_Once again, thanks for reading and may you have a good day!_


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